Third Wheeling For Dummies | on hold

eight

The tip of Jungwoo's nose feels like it's been booped by Elsa.

It's not even relatively well into the winter, but the air is so chilled that he feels like he's been put into a meat locker. The darkness doesn't help, and the two who keep him company squishing him from either side seem to be of no help either.

So much for sharing body heat.

"Well, at least they didn't ban us," Ten says hopefully, shivering as a stray gust of wind blows their way. "It could have been much worse."

The walk down the road has been going on for quite a long time, with the trio being forced to leave through the otherwise unauthorized exit to save themselves from public humiliation. The road winds around the shop and the entire length of a park, so it's much longer than your usual five-minute distance to cover.

"You two fell over in the middle of the freeze-dried aisle and managed to destroy an entire arrangement of soft drink cans, only to be hit in the face with most." Jae says dryly. "I don't see how it could be worse."

Ten rolls his eyes. "It's all because of me that they let us go scot-free, you know. Be glad I can think off my feet, unlike you two."

"Buying an entire section of strawberry gum wasn't going to help anyone, you know." Jungwoo sighs. "They weren't going to ban us for falling over."

The boy gapes at him half in indignation and half in an expression of crumbling beliefs. "They were totally going to—no one buys strawberry gum, they love me!" He sputters. "They kicked us out, they could have banned us too!"

Ten's idea to save them had been winning the manager's favour by buying bucketloads of the locality's most hated product.

Jae raises her eyebrows as if she's not sure how an accident like that disrupts public peace, but doesn't say anything, probably not ready to rip through the thin peel of Ten's weakening conflict.

Jungwoo remembers the supermarket grannies and the smartphone-weilding kids who had held up their cameras and snapped pictures of him and Ten, and shivers. He's not so sure, but at least they're not banned.

"What were you doing, though?" Jungwoo glances at Jaesun, partly to change the subject, partly because he's curious. "Sneaking up on us and being the actual reason for this major embarrassment?"

She opens her mouth, looking guilty, and then sucks in the chilly air through her teeth, making a sharp sound. "I wasn't intending to be the reason for it."

"Ha!" Chittaphon jumps in. "You didn't answer his question!"

The blond in the middle nods confirmation, and narrows his eyes, making her shake out a nervous laugh.

"I was actually just..." She shrugs, her hands stuffed deep inside the pockets of her jacket. "I saw you, and I was actually going to come up to you but—then I heard you talking about peppermint ice cream and I just..." She shrugs helplessly to solidify her point.

Ten nods slowly albeit grudgingly. "Peppermint is the shit."

The bags make soft crushing sounds as they swing rythmically at Ten's side.

Jungwoo sighs, and the other squints to the right. "Hey, that's Yuta's place." Ten elbows the boy in his side. "The walk is too fucking long, you wanna stay in here tonight?"

Jungwoo looks over at his line of sight, and thinks about the collection of Disney movies gracing Yuta's room. Then he looks at Jaesun, who combs her hand through her blue and black hair.

"Nah, my mum wants me home for dinner." He lies through his teeth, and bends forward, stopping as Chittaphon observes his face. "You go ahead—and pick up my call when it comes."

Ten raises an eyebrow at him, and then at Jaesun, who offers Jungwoo a grateful smile. "Alright." He says gruffly. "Just don't, like, fuck on the sidewalk or something just because you have no adult supervision. People are watching."

He points two fingers towards his face, and then at the two of them, and finally turns around.

And then it's just them.

"They sure are." Jungwoo says in a soft voice as he straightens, glancing at Jae to find her staring at him. "Come on, it's not too far from here."

He starts walking before she does, so she has to power-walk to catch up.

"You do realise that this is only the second time we've met?" Once again, her fingers curl into her front pockets.

"Common courtesy." Jungwoo shrugs.

She snorts, shaking her head in a way that makes her unruly hair fall onto her forehead again. Jungwoo stares at her—sideways so she wouldn't notice—as they cross the street under a street lamp, the soft orange glow making her helix piercing gleam.

"How often do you babysit Lucas's brothers?" She asks, her tone casual and conversational as they continue walking.

"Pretty often." He says. "It used to be less, but now I'm one of the few in our group who has a lot of free time, so he asks me."

"Isn't that kind of sad?"

"Not really...Xuxi makes amazing cookies, and they—well, Yangyang and Kunhang aren't half bad."

"I was referring to the having a lot of free time part, but okay." Jae grins, and it makes him smile a little, too. The one without any teeth.

"Everyone's dating everyone else, but I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of relationship just yet." He bites his lip, and looks up to find Lucas's place standing two houses past. "At least it's not some one-sided sob story."

Jaesun pauses in front of the gate, and when their eyes meet, there's something strange in her expression.

"It could be worse." Her tone, though low, is almost solemn. She clears her throat, and offers him a pursed smile. "G'night, Jungwoo."

He watches her go up the path to the door. "Good night, Jae."

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don't worry, we're not getting into the angst yEt

this was sort of a teaser of what is to come, but thoughts??? theories?? any idea about where this might go?

fetus stay waiting for the I am you can like

love,
Manx